All Quiet on the Western Front Post 5

AQWF is getting really good. Thanks to both Quinn Deeds and my mom and dad's reccomendations I have successfully chosen a book that I do not want to put down. I feel that I like it so much because the author, Erich Remarque's, writing style is so vivid and interactive that the reader feels as though he has known a character like Paul Baumer for a while. I left off where Paul and his comrades are just leaving the hospital. They have just visited their friend Kemmerich who has just had his leg amputated. They are all grieving for Kemmerich because the doctors told the guys that he will probably not make it through the night. As they enter his room all of them try to maintain the best of spirits but are still very melancholy. One of Pauls commrades sees a pair of Kemmerichs very nice, stern, top of the line boots lying under the bed and kind of pesters Kemmerich in which I portrayed to be a very jerk-like thing to do for a friend who is dying and needs all the confidence he can get. But as Paul's friend pesters Kemmerich to have the boots Paul notices that Kemmerichs eyes no longer have that "flicker of life" as they used to. He feels sorry for his friend and elbows his pestering commrade in the gut to make him stop. The guys leave the hospital all down in the dumps like for they are going to miss their old friend who used to fight alongside them, as would any human being at the loss of someone who was dear to them.

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Beriebeck, Helmut. "Why Soft Drinks Contribute to Obesity." Natural News.com. 1 Sept. 2008. 7 Dec. 2008 .
The author, Helmut Beriebeck, talks about how the increased consumption of soft drinks over the past years has been a contributing factor to the increased obesity rates. In his first statement Beriebeck talks about how high fructose corn syrup which was introduced 30 years ago is now a main ingredient in almost all soft drinks. Now this may just seem coincidential at first but not after studies that have been done. Studies have shown that high fructose syrup does not trigger the same safety signals to the body as something like sucrose sweetening does. So because of the increased intake of high fructose corn syrup due to the increased intake of things like soft drinks one can conclude that high fructose corn syrup is a major leading cause of obesity in many people’s lives.

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Chow, Reuben. "Five Ways One Has To Pay the Price for Obesity." Natural News.com. 3 Nov. 2008. 7 Dec. 2008 .
The author, Reuben Chow, uses facts to show five ways obesity negatively affects people financially. His first point is that obesity causes higher medical costs. Chow uses “The Fattening of America” by Eric Finkelstein and Laurie Zuckerman to argue his point. “The Fattening of America” states that obese males medical costs will be $170 more than a lighter males and an obese females medical costs will be $495 more than that of a lighter female. In the second point Chow says that obese persons will have a lower average income. According to a study that was done at Stanford University obese men and women earn $3.41 less than that of a lighter male or female which adds up to more than $7,000 a year. In Chow’s third point he uses the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to describe how obese Americans lose more work hours due to medical problems. On average the institute says that an obese American will lose about a week of work every year due to health related problems. In Chow’s fourth point he uses the journal The Engineering Economist to stress that obese Americans use more gasoline than a lighter average American. Due to their increased weight the car is forced to work harder therefore using more gasoline. In Chow’s fifth and final point he talks about how obese men and women have higher cost of air travel. Airplanes like cars burn more fuel with heavier passengers. Another cause is that obese passengers may have to purchase more than one seat to accompany their proper needs. Overall what I think Chow is trying to get across is that with the economy as is obese people are really going to struggle because they are forced to pay more just to do their daily routines; driving, flying, working. So in general being healthy can save you a lot of money.

All Quiet on the Western Front Post 4

AQWF is getting pretty good. Right now in the book Paul Baumer and his fellow comrades just finished visiting their very good friend, who was also part of their troop, Kemmerich. Their friend Kemmerich is in the hospital for a reason that is unknown. All we know is that he has just woken up from surgery in which his leg has been amputated. Before Paul and his friends went into see Kemmerich the doctor told the guys that Kemmerich did not yet know that his leg had been amputated for he was just waking up from the surgery and was not fully "with it" so the guys were not supposed to mention anything to him. The doctor also mentioned that Kemmerich may not make it through the night. As the scene progresses the guys talk with their friend and fellow soldier. Kemmerich is in a good deal of pain and the guys try to keep his mind off it by reminising about old times. You can tell by the tone of Paul's thoughts that he is very sad that his friend will not be with him much longer. Paul can see the mourning in all of the guys' eyes and they all just sit around in a melancholy sort of manner. This is the first point in the book where we actually experience sadness and grieving on a first hand level with the soldiers. In past passages they had not been mourning but just sort of recalling previous deaths of other soldiers, this is the first dying friend of theirs that we actually encounter while he's still alive. The chapter ends with the guys walking out of the room and persuading the nurse with cigarettes to give Kemmerich some more morphine.

All Quiet on the Western Front Post 3

In this next section of AQWF Paul Baumer talks about the differences between the liberty and respect for their country they teach in schools and the love you feel for your country out on the battlefield. He quotes this by saying, "While they continued to write and talk, we saw the wounded and the dying. While they taught that duty to one's country is the greatest thing, we already new that death-throes are stronger." This quote really shows that learning about one's respect and love for his/her country is very very different than actually having to go into action and be the one who is respected for defending one's country because of his/her love for the country. So overall the message I think Paul is really trying to get across to the reader is, is that in order to really know or feel something you have to experience it first hand, you cant be taught pride and suffering and sacrifice from a teacher you have to experience it on your own in order to really know what its like to win a battle when your outnumbered 10:1, to lose eight of your best friends in a battle, to have nothing to eat for days on end except the bugs and mice that inhabit your trench. I am really excited to keep reading this book because its not just one of those stories that has constant action, little plot, and weak character development; this book really goes into the lives and hearts of soldiers that fought for their lives and their country and it has taught me to really appreciate the things I have and respect the men and women that have laid down their lives for the lives of others.

All Quiet on the Western Front Post 2

As you come into the novel you meet a young soldier in his early twenties in the German army. The soldier is named Paul Baumer and is stationed in a base on the western front of Germany. All Quiet on the Western Front is told in first person by Paul. The novel starts off by introducing each one of the soldiers in Pauls squad. There are eight men in his squad, but eight were also lost in the previous battle. Paul talks about the hardships they have to deal with and how fortunate they are when his squad recieves double rations of cigars, cigarettes, and chewing tobacco. I really felt like I was a soldier stationed at his location in these first couple of chapters by how Erich Remarque, the author of the novel, goes so far as to describe the language they use and how their "parents and school teachers would have been astounded at the language they used but it was soldier talk and thats how they spoke. The food rations and the way the soldiers eat is also depicted in very vivid detail. When the cook makes an amount of food that is double what is needed the soldiers jump on the idea of getting a double ration, for they are hungry constantly and, as Paul describes, on their shifts they sometimes go two weeks on almost nothing except spoiled meat and moldy bread, which still barely even quenches their hunger. Right now in the book I still have a couple questions. The first being, where exactly are they stationed. Currently in the novel Remarque has made no notion as to where Paul and his fellow soldiers are stationed except that they are stationed somewhere on the western front of Germany. The second being, how far into the war are they? Has it just started or have the Americans already invaded Normandy. I am really excited to keep reading this novel one, because its a war book, and two because it is told from the perspective of a German soldier which could provide some further insight on what the war was like on the German side of things.